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ART_AGAINST_ART

                                            December 29, 2005


  "The Wheeler Dealers" includes
  a minor character that's working    A mid-60s 
  the abstract art racket.            James Garner.    A small bit
                                                       from the novel:
      "Look, if you're going                           Texas oilman,
      to walk around on my                             just arrived
      canvas, you could at                             in New York
      *least* put some paint                           for refinancing,
      on your shoes."                                  reaches into
                                                       his closet the
  One of our hero's side projects is to                next morning,
  put over abstract art as a speculative               and considers
  investment.                                          wearing one
                                                       of his Brooks
          A funny scene has him trying                 Brothers
          to remember his lines for                    knock-offs.
          his statement to the art                        
          press: the artist dude plays                 He says to himself    
          charades behind them to                      "No.  Never play    
          prompt him:                                  the other fellow's
                                                       game", and puts       
              "Uh --"                                  on his cowboy      
                                                       outfit again.     
              *Holds nose, puffs out                                      
              cheeks, drops down behind                                  
              them*                                                          
                                                                    
              "I believe in                                               
              *emersing* myself..."


                                                       
   A very early film, probably one of                               
   the first talkies, I'm going to guess
   1931:  a young artist goes to Paris
   to work on his craft, falls in with
   a bunch preaching the Modern Art
   gospel -- the leader of the clique
   shows off his painting "The Whistle"
   (some sort of close-up cubist rendition
   of the same, with a *whooshing* look to
   it), and goes off into a music number,
   singing "Don't paint the whistle,
   paint the blow!"

   The main character is struck one night
   by the way the room looks spinning around
   him when he's drunk... he sets out to
   attempt a painting of this, a roughly
   radially symmetric deal he calls something
   like "The Wheel of Life".  (He comments
   that working on it is quite expensive,
   because he has to keep getting drunk
   to do it.)

   Eventually, his work appears in
   competition, and is quite well
   recieved by the judges, though
   he gets terribly angry with them
   because they're exhibiting it
   *upside down*.  A fight ensues,
   he feels that all is lost...

   But actually, the fight gets a
   fair amount of press, and it
   turns out he sells the painting
   for quite a bit of money... to
   someone who doesn't care at all
   about the painting, but is
   convinced it's a great investement,
   because of the crazy publicity.



((And... I could swear I've got
a third example of something
like this...))


                                                            WEAK_REEDS

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